New Poster: Certification/Career Advice :)

jstock

I'd really appreciate some certification and general career advice. At the moment, I am trying to decide if I should pursue certifications. If so, what certifications?

As background, I graduated in May 2016 with a BS in Information Security and ~18 months of network/security experience (co-ops). I was very lucky to have a job lined-up after graduation. I am currently a Security Analyst for a large, worldwide transportation company. My job is a mixture of the technical aspects as well as the managing side of security. My ultimate goal is to manage a security program of my own.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

P.S. This site was one of the greatest finds ever.

superbeast

Welcome. Wanted to get this reply in before some of the other members start to bash about using the search function or how this is the 1,000,000th time this thread has been made. We all start somewhere and wanted to give you some advice to your post.

Certification should be in an area that will either supplement your current role or get you to the next level in your career from a professional aspect. If you're in a security role, you can start with Comptia Security+ as a foundation to more advance security certs. Comptia suggest about 2 years in a security role before attempting the Security+ exam so I believe your ~18 months should be enough. After that, you can shoot for CASP or CSA+ if you plan to stay in the Comptia circle. There are numerous security certs out there, but focus on what you need to get started so you're not overwhelmed with all the cert ideas.

cdx

Welcome to the community!

Check out the Infosec section of the forums. There are many paths you can take in Information Security. Read around there and you will see some great info. Also google SANS Roadmap and COMPTIA Certification Roadmap